Passive fire protection is the concept of using the building elements to contain a fire to prevent the rapid spread of the fire, to allow for evacuation of occupants and to provide safer conditions for fire fighting.
Buildings are designed to have separate “fire compartments” wherein walls, floors, ceilings, doors etc. (building elements) are designed and rated to have a fire resistance level or FRL.
The FRL varies according to the type of building. For example, apartments may have a FRL of 90 minutes whereas old age homes may have a FRL of 240 minutes.
Services conduits including conduits for water, electricity, sewage, air-conditioning and ventilation have to penetrate these fire compartments and the holes required for their passage have to be protected.
Certain conduits such as plastic conduits melt very quickly and it is therefore essential to have an efficient means to seal these penetrations.
Such is achieved by the use of “fire collars” at these conduit passages capable of maintaining the FRL of the building element. Specifically, a fire collar is a device that reacts to heat to seal the conduit passage and eliminate or reduce the heat transfer to the adjacent fire compartment space.
The present invention seeks to provide a fire collar, which will overcome or substantially ameliorate at least some of the deficiencies of the prior art, or to at least provide an alternative.
It is to be understood that, if any prior art information is referred to herein, such reference does not constitute an admission that the information forms part of the common general knowledge in the art, in Australia or any other country.